Page 27

Getting visible confirmation that Stacy and Maxim were involved in whatever reason petrylle were going missing was a shot to the heart.

I’d bared my soul to these people and now they were having a team of armed men point their guns at me, like at any second I was at risk of having my head blown off.

And not in the way I typically liked.

Stacy had ordered a few of them to leave the room, leaving only three guards as a few of them pried a struggling to breathe Hudson from the floor to take him behind another closed door off to the back of the room.

That left one guard for each of us to make sure there was the threat of gun violence literally being nudged against our skulls.

The consensus that Stacy was the ring leader in this situation was not lost on me, and I kept trying to lock eyes with Maxim, but he was refusing to look at me.

A part of me was glad, because I was irate with him.

But the other half thought that maybe if he couldn’t stomach making eye contact with me, that meant he still harbored enough guilt about what he was doing, which meant that there was hope to appeal to him and hopefully end this nonsense.

Each of the guards were standing right next to me, Wrage and Wrex, their guns pressed a gainst our temples, just waiting for the word from Stacy. She nodded toward the one manhandling Wrage as Maxim forced Wrex to his feet.

“Take that one and put him with the rest,” Stacy commented casually, as if she were asking for him to grab her a water from the fridge instead of putting him in with the rest of the captured petrylle. “We’ll deal with him later.”

Nodding, the guard shoved Wrage toward the only other door down here in the basement, walking past Stacy, Maxim, and his brother.

“We’ll get you out of here, Wrex, I promise.” Wrage snarled before he was shoved hard through the door by the guard, the receding sound of a snarl sounding off until the door swung closed with a sharp slam.

Wrex still hadn’t spoken. His hands were still tied behind his back but his mouth wasn’t donning tape or anything else keeping him from speaking. Maybe he’d been with these lunatics long enough to realize that being quiet was the best plan of action.

Now that it was just me, the friends I thought I’d had, and the petrylle I’d been having sex with, this felt way too personal. Maybe I could use that to my advantage, get as much information on what the fuck was going on here.

“What do you want?” I stated, looking straight at Stacy as she rolled her grip on the chrome pistol she was brandishing. “What’s the point of all of this?”

Stacy beamed, relishing in the attention and my lack of knowledge. “This isn’t about you, Wallace.” That was rich, considering she’d specifically taken the one petrylle that meant more to me than most. “At least, not until recently. Wrex here was just to get your attention.”

“Well, you have it. What do you want?” I snarled back, asking the unanswered question again.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Maxim’s voice was barely over a whisper and only audible because of the silence in the room.

Annoyed, Stacy wore a snarl of her own. “How many fucking times do I have to tell you, Maxim? Who’s in charge here?”

Fear flashed across his face. “You are.”

“And who dies if you quit following orders?”

“My parents.” His voice shook with emotion, but he quickly attempted to steel himself when Stacy cut him a glare so dark and twisted that even I flinched at it.

“That’s right.” Stacy chuckled. “So be a good little boy and follow fucking directions, and no one gets hurt.”

Yearning to ask the question about what was going on burned in my throat, but when I locked eyes with Wrex, it vanished in an instant. The only thing I wanted was to throw my arms around him and assure him that everything was going to be okay. Even if I was starting to have my doubts on that front.

“Stacy, Wallace didn’t do anything.” Maxim nodded. “I know he’s an Orb sympathizer, but he can change his mind. He’s a good guy.”

Without missing a beat, Stacy took the back of her gun and smacked Maxim across the face.

He tumbled to the ground, grabbing at his jaw as he writhed in pain on the floor.

She sighed, more annoyed than eager to inflict more pain.

The guards shifted on their feet, but she waved them in Maxim’s direction.

“Take him elsewhere and tie him up, I’m so over him.” She scoffed.

“Stacy—”

She squealed loudly, her voice reaching deafening heights of shrill. “For fuck’s sake, will you stop calling me that? We’re almost done with this job, so I can dump the stupid alias I gave you. ”

My brow furrowed. What the actual fuck was happening here? This seemed limitlessly more complicated than I had originally thought. The guard keeping an eye on Wrex left him for a second to pull Maxim to his feet.

“What?” He seemed shocked by this revelation, but other things on his mind took over. “I did everything you said!” Maxim’s fear was evident, his whole body shaking in the hands of the guard. “My parents are gonna be okay, right?”

“You’re parents will be fine,” She waved at the guard. “Unless you don’t get out of my sight, you’re annoying the fuck out of me. And Wallace and I have business to discuss.”

Shoving the rifle against Maxim’s side, the guard lead him over to the door that Wrage had disappeared into. “I’m sorry, Wallace! I’m so sorry!”

I mentally noted that apparently Maxim was being blackmailed into helping Stacy, or whatever the fuck her name was since she’d mentioned it being an alias, and kept a straight face as she walked over to Wrex and pointed the gun at his head.

“We’re going to have a little chat, and if I don’t like the way it’s going, I’m going to blow his fucking brains out. Got it?”

I nodded. I briefly wondered, now that there was only one guard and Stacy keeping us apart, if Wrex would be able to use his luster to break free from his restraints. As if he could read the thought on my face, Wrex gave me a curt shake of his head.

“Clearly you wanted me here, Stacy. So why don’t you tell me what I’m doing here.” I spoke evenly, but my heart was rattling against my chest.

“Let’s start with my name isn’t Stacy.” She smirked. “My real name is Aspen Rhodes.”

My nose crinkled. “As in, Senator Rhodes?”

I knew him by reputation only. He’d been a prominent member of the Senate until a few months ago when he’d fallen ill. The only reason I’d heard about it was because I’d walked in on my boss Cassandra gossiping about it one of the evenings I’d been updating her on ORBIT business.

Stacy / Aspen snapped the fingers of her free hand. “Ding ding! Correct. Dear old daddy isn’t doing too hot, and no one was giving a shit so I took things into my own hands, more or less.”

“Wait, you’ve been pretending to be a woman named Stacy for over three years. Your father has only been sick a couple months.”

“A couple months to the public , that is.” She clarified.

“Daddy’s been sick for years. And a couple months ago, it took him out of commission.

But I had to do something.” She was starting to pace as she spoke, paying less and less attention to Wrex.

I needed that to continue if we planned on coming up with a way to get out of here, so I made a mental note to keep her talking.

“And since Daddy’s been at the forefront of not being the biggest fan of Orbs, I decided to start a little group to fuel others into helping me do the dirty work while I tried to figure out a way to save him. ”

“You’re…behind the Hellgrammite hate group?” It was an astonishing thought. I’d be impressed if I hadn’t been absolutely horrified.

“My best idea,” She beamed, swirling the gun around her hand like it was a cheerleading baton.

“But why the petrylle?” I demanded. “Why did you need them?”

“Because of their luster,” She scoffed, like I should have already pieced it together by now.

“We discovered that the source comes from their bones, that it’s something in their bones that radiates the luster and makes them stronger.

” She simmered down from her reign of power, tears licking at the edges of her eyes.

“When Daddy started getting sick, I knew something drastic had to be done to save him.”

I’d heard about Senator Rhodes’ condition.

A few months prior to me bringing the idea of ORBIT to my boss’ desk, the senator had fallen so ill that he’d had to be given at home care to monitor his worsening condition.

I had no reason to doubt her motivations, however trivial and selfish they were, but my brow furrowed when I thought about her lying to Maxim all these years.

“Senator Rhodes has only been sick a few months,” I challenged. “You were with Maxim for over three years so why—”

“To the public he’s been sick for months.

” She reminded me. “The family has known about his condition for years and we managed to keep it quiet for a long time. I was the only Rhodes sibling even remotely worried about Daddy enough to formulate this master plan for him. I found Maxim by chance. By then, he was already working for you. Daddy said you were always sympathetic to Orbs, even back then, and I knew that infiltrating that way would bear fruit. I got incredibly lucky that you decided to craft this stupid Orb board. All of this,” She paused to suggest the invisible actions surrounding us. “Is thanks to you, Wallace.”

Pausing to laugh like everything was going according to plan, she lightly paced back and forth in the small space allotted to her between me and where Wrex was on the floor.

“I thought,” She went on with her explanation unprompted.

“That if I could uplift the ideals of an Orb sympathizer that I could learn more about their unique abilities, to see if any of their special attributes could help Daddy. And once Maxim saw the petrylle displaying their luster during the interviews for your little board, I knew I had my in.”

Disgust twisted my eyes from her, instead hitching on the movement I caught from Wrex.

He steeled himself as she glanced back at Wrex, whom she had been conveniently ignoring while I had her in the throes of her villain monologue.

He gave me a nod and then slightly gestured to his hands.

I took that as silent cue that he was almost done getting the restraints on his hands undone and to keep her talking.

“So what was the plan? Kill the petrylle to get access to their bone marrow or something?”

“Oh please, it’s not the simple.” She rolled her eyes.

“We tried that, but the scientists said the only way to administer the properties to Daddy was to either find a suitable donor that matched perfectly or to have enough so we could extract the luster from fresh limbs.” Smiling evilly, she pointed her gun at Wrex, which made him stop fidgeting with his hands so that she didn’t suspect anything.

“And with your little boy toy, the scientists think we have enough petrylle to attempt extraction without fear of failing.”

Wrex gave me a stern nod, and I nodded back, worried that Stacy would notice, but she was too wrapped up in her own little world to see the exchange.

“You really think you’re going to get away with this, don’t you?”

“Why not?” She chuckled. “Hellgrammite already got away with rioting the blood centers without consequence.”

My jaw slacked, dumbfounded. This hate group was behind the attacks on the blood centers? How the hell had they been operating underneath everyone’s noses?

“That was you?”

“We have multiple endeavors, Wallace.” She snickered, tapping the end of her gun against her chin. “This one with the petrylle is just a hell of a lot more personal to me.”

“Well consider this one officially finished.” I made sure to inject every ounce of bite and bile I had toward this friend turned stranger as Wrex broke free of his restraints in one swoop as he activated his luster, a shiny see-through skin of impenetrable hardness glossing over his grey skin.

Stacy wasn’t too keen on being one-upped.

Instead of aiming the gun at Wrex, she snarled and pointed the gun at me .

Realizing that he wasn’t her target, Wrex screamed in anguish as she pulled the trigger while he leapt to protect me.

I winced, waiting for the bullet to beat Wrex and pierce the skin around my heart, but it didn’t come. Instead, I watched bewildered as the bullet Stacy fired bounced off of Wrex’s luster, deflecting back to her and puncturing her stomach in a sick squelch that echoed throughout the room.